The German Government evidently wishes for some assist- ance in
East Africa which the British Government is unwilling to afford. In a semi-official note which is going the round of the German Press, it is pointed out that the Sultan of Zanzibar is responsible for the non- execution of the treaty within his dominions, and probably encouraged the recent outrages. Germany, therefore, would demand satisfaction from him; but she surrenders her own policy with an eye to future friendship with Great Britain. Should the policy of the Opposition, however, succeed, Germany would despair of that friendship, and "the re- action" of German feeling "would be sure to make itself felt sooner or later in the field of European policy," where the want of German friendship may one day be
lamented by Great Britain. There is an obvious threat in this conmunigug, but it is not easy to understand what Germany is so vexed about. It is our business to help her in sup- pressing the slave-trade, but it is not our business to recover her Colonies for her, or to concur in an impolitic and unjust attack upon Zanzibar. We can only imagine that the Imperial Government is annoyed at the difficulty of revindicating German prestige in the interior without employing conscripts, and has asked for help in some shape, possibly a loan of Indian troops, which it was simply impossible to afford.
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